Kolkata doctor's rape and murder: Hospital attacked as protesters stage midnight march

The crime has triggered a wave of strike action by junior and trainee doctors across the country

Kolkata residents attend a mass protest after a rape and murder that took place at RG Kar Medical College in the city. EPA

A mob attacked a hospital in the Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday as people gathered for a midnight march to protest over the brutal rape and murder of doctor there last week.

Women and men staged the Reclaim the Night march to demand justice for the 31-year-old trainee doctor at the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal state.

Her body was discovered in the government-run hospital on August 9 with signs of sexual assault and severe injuries including to her head, Indian media reported. Junior doctors across the country have staged protests over the crime, leading to the closure of outpatient departments and the disruption of elective care.

At midnight, as scores of women and men were protesting outside, a group of about 40 people from among the crowd entered and vandalised hospital. They threw stones at police who fired tear gas in return.

"More than a dozen of policemen, including a deputy police commissioner, were wounded when they tried to resist the agitators," said Vinit Goyal, city police commissioner.

"The violent crowd also attacked the media people present at the hospital, damaging their cameras."

He said nine arrests were made.

Hasan Mushtaq, a trainee doctor at the hospital, said: "We were to leave at 11pm for a protest march. But there was a group of people outside the campus, they were raising the slogan 'We want justice', but they weren't moving.

“The mob turned angry and they were trying to enter the campus. Suddenly, they started coming and vandalising. Even though we are doing everything peacefully, they came from outside and have done this."

Television channels broadcast images of damage to the hospital's emergency room, nurses’ station and storerooms.

Police said the section of the hospital where the rape took place was not touched by the vandals.

Police arrested a hospital volunteer a day after the doctor's body was found, but her colleagues and family allege that more than one person was involved in the assault.

Dr Subarna Goswami, a former intern at the hospital, said he had seen the postmortem and claimed it indicated rape by more than one person, and “perverted sexuality”.

The case was handed to the Central Bureau of Investigation, a federal agency, at the request of the victim's parents.

The mother said earlier that the hospital had tried to frame the incident as a suicide and that the family was kept waiting for three hours to see the body.

The victim, who has not been identified for legal reasons, has been named Abhaya, meaning "fearless", by protesters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the issue of sexual violence in his speech to mark India 78th independence day on Thursday, without mentioning the case in Kolkata.

"There is public outrage over atrocities against our mothers and sisters," he said. "I feel this outrage. The country, the society, our state governments need to take this seriously.

“Crimes against women must be probed as soon as possible, those involved in demonic acts must face strict punishment at the earliest [juncture]. This is necessary to create faith in society."

An average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people, according to National Crimes Record Bureau.

Abhaya's case has been likened to that of Nirbhaya, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, who died from her injuries after being raped by six men on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.

The case triggered protests across India and international outrage, as the government promised to overhaul the country’s judiciary and rape laws to end impunity for sexual offenders.

The government promised in 2017 to set up 1,800 fast-track courts for cases of sexual assault, but only 722 are functioning, with nearly 600,000 cases pending.

Only 32 per cent rape cases resulted in convictions in 2017, according to government data. Many cases ended in acquittal because of errors in investigations or after victims withdraw their complaints.

One of the most shocking cases is that of Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse at a prominent Mumbai hospital who was raped and strangled by a ward attendant in 1973 and remained in a "vegetative state" for 42 years until her death in 2015.

The rape in Kolkata has also highlighted the lack of protection for doctors, who often face abuse and sometimes assault by relatives of patients.

A survey by the Indian Medical Association found that 75 per cent of doctors had faced some form of violence.

The government in 2022 set up measures to protect doctors, including criminalising violence against healthcare professionals and introducing penalties for offenders.